Authors

Disclosure statement

Sara FL Kirk receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Heart and Stroke, the Lawson Foundation, the Max Bell Foundation and the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation. She is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which is advocating for a national school food program. She is also a board member of Canada Bikes, a not-for-profit that promotes everyday cycling in Canada.

Amberley T. Ruetz receives funding from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for her current research on the economic impact of the farm-to-school program. She is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, which is advocating for a national school food program. She also consults with the Ontario Student Nutrition Program, Southwest Region.

A patchwork of programs

Canada is lagging behind other high-income countries in providing nutritious food to children.

In a UNICEF report published last year, Canada ranked 37th out of 41 countries on access to nutritious food for children. That is below the United States.

By using local foods, a national school lunch program could double as a local economic growth strategy.(Shutterstock)

One reason for this is Canada’s patchwork of programs that serve only a fraction of kids. Funding for programs comes from several different stakeholders, including provincial and territorial governments, municipal governments and charities. This contrasts sharply with school food programs in other countries.

The benefits are multiple, not only improving student nutrition, health and social development, but providing wider employment. The program supports local food systems and regional economic development, since 30 per cent of food purchased for the program comes from small family farms.

It’s time for action

These international examples illustrate how healthy food provision is prioritized elsewhere in the world. This pays off through an impressive return on investment for school food programs — of $3 to $10 for every dollar invested.

Because children’s eating habits are more easily influenced than those of adults, interventions aimed at children are also more likely to have the potential to reduce future health-care costs.

Children spend on average six to seven hours or 50 per cent of their time awake at school which makes schools the ideal medium for instilling lifelong eating habits in a non-stigmatizing way.

Political will is essential for a national school food program to become a reality. And Eggleton’s motion is catalyzing this important conversation about the state of children’s health in Canada.

Soda tax as revenue

Growing rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease among Canada’s population are unsustainable. The Coalition for Healthy School Food, comprised of 40 organizations across Canada, estimates that a national, universal healthy school food program would cost $1.8 billion per year.

The Coalition is calling on the Government of Canada to initially invest $360 million, through provincial and territorial transfers, in healthy school food programs.

A soda tax could almost finance a national school food program throughout Canada.(Shutterstock)

The eventual goal would be universal coverage, through a cost-shared model of joint investments from the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, as well as some investment from not-for-profits and parents where applicable.